Retention of Licensed Site Remediation Professionals in New Jersey (Revisited)

In May 2009, New Jersey enacted the Site Remediation Reform Act.(1) The SRRA radically transformed the state’s environmental remediation regime. Prior to its passage, principal remediation documents and many remedial activities required the specific prior approval of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Given the number of contaminated sites and environmentally related transactions and installations (such as underground storage tanks) in the state, the prior statutory mandate upon the DEP to “command and control” most environmental cleanup led to a seemingly insurmountable backlog of largely unexamined cases. This backlog created delays in remedial action and completion. The SRRA sought to eliminate this predicament by privatizing most remediation, placing remedial determinations in the hands of a newly created class of licensees called licensed site remediation professionals, or LSRPs.